Oil prices tumbled to new four-year lows today despite OPEC's announcement of a record 2.2 billion-barrel crude production cut from OPEC, with markets already pricing in a vastly reduced flow of oil.

Light, sweet crude for January delivery fell more than 5 percent, or $2.21, to $41.39 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Benchmark crude prices fell as low as $40.20, a price last seen in the summer of 2004.

U.S. gasoline inventories continued to rise, the government reported, providing further evidence of a major pullback by American motorists.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Dec. 12 was 2.7 percent lower than a year earlier.

OPEC had already announced cuts totaling 2 million barrels earlier this year, also with little effect. The unprecedented production cuts and the market reaction show just how fast energy demand has fallen during the worst economic downturn in at least a generation.

"You've got a commodity that people are buying less of because they can't afford to buy more," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. "People are fearful. They have a lack of confidence in the economy. They're closing their factories."

Grim economic news radiates out of the U.S., Europe and Asia almost daily as consumers and industries pull back on spending.

The Cooper Tire and Rubber Co. today said it will cut 1,300 jobs and close a plant in Georgia.

Newell Rubbermaid Inc. is reducing its salaried work force by as much as 10 percent. The Atlanta-based company slashed its fourth-quarter and full-year profit guidance today.

In Detroit, General Motors Corp. put the brakes on construction of an engine factory trying to hold on to the cash that it has left.